Cool things for sale

Forbidden planet is offering 50% off on the whole Studio Ghibli DVD range. That means that you can pay just £9.99 each.

http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/
144 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0UP

Many of these films can also be seen on Film 4


Also spotted this week, were some cat figurines at Play Lounge, I mistakenly thought they were from the Cat Returns but it turns out they are from London based artist Ayako Takagi. Unlike most of Play Lounge's figurines these ones are made from clay rather than vinyl.

http://www.playlounge.co.uk/
19 Beak Street, London, W1F 9RP

5050 Zzzz

Olympus are suggesting that I give them £100 to fix the "known issue" with my 5050z media door because the item's out of warranty. My local repair shop is suggesting somewhere between £50 and £100. It looks like I'll have to manage without for a while unless anyone has a good idea that does not end up with the camera in a worst state.

Later this month is the London International Animation Festival which has a massive programme of films and is sponsored by several people including Tiger beer which sounds promising... Perhaps they would sponsor a remake of my beer film?

For those wanting to know how the Flea Film is going, well progress has been a little slow but there has been some thought into what is happening next. The current plan is to complete the Professor's explanationion sequence as a stand alone clip. I've also been looking at alternative video editing tools and a tool for making the wheels on the Ambulance work. The Ambulance sequence is likely to be the next completed segment.

The Wheels modifier for Carrara from Sparrow Hawke does a great job of steering and rotating the wheels but I expect that I will have supplementent it with the Cognito modifier (or hand animation) to make the vehicle wobble as it moves along.

Rolling Eyes

After an evening of attempting to get my Ring Master's eyes to follow the jumping fleas, I think I've gone cross eyed myself. I've put the Ring Master on a diet too with his chunky hands slimming down a bit to help with the handling of the fleas.
The dreaded floor texture is on its latest iteration but I'm still not totally happy with it. The backdrop has been redone with new textures and a few lumps and bumps to make it look less artificial so I'm quite pleased with how that has turned out.

You can see the latest film at TheFleaFilm site along with an updated production plan

Over the last couple of months there was a great advert on the television. The "bag of smiles" advert for the National lottery brought smiles to the faces the viewers and to everyone in Marc Craste's fictitious world. Marc's film is enhanced by added grainyness and a fake film effect which is a nice touch as the music is A smile and a ribbon by Patience and Prudence who recorded this back in the 1950s. The exploding pillow is an amazing effect and the characters and sets are of a reminisant of Dr Zeus illustrations. Unfortunately the advert is no longer showing but you can Watch the advert at Visit4Info or at StudioAKA (follow the news links)


Other things to watch are the new DVDs available from BAA. The British Animation Awards new DVD is out volume 6 and is available from the Tate and shortly to be available on the website.

http://www.britishanimationawards.com/

Everyone's favourite Czech Surealist Animator Jan Svankmajer has a showing of Little Otik at the Riverside studios Thursday 22nd June and I can recomend a visit.

To South Kensington and Beyond

I returned from a work trip to Denmark to discover that everyone in London appears to be talking about animation at the moment...


In South Kensington, the Science Museum is running an exhibition entitled "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation", this is supplemented by a series of talks and a competition. The talks span a wide range of topics and the speakers are respected names in the academic and animation industry. Book early to avoid disapointment!

Over at the National Portrait Gallery there is a special screening of Contemporary Animation with Iain Sinclair followed by a discussion with guest film makers. I'm not quite sure what they mean by Contemporary Animation but as it's an art gallery, I presume it's animation from the same period as contemporary art which should make for a very interesting talk.

Whilst looking for some inspiration on a viewfinder shot for the "Fleacam", I stumbled across the blog of another animator, T R Norton and also Angry Puppet Films which was good but it wasn't what I needed, looks like I'll just have to use my imagination...

All things Irish

So its that time of year again when all of us dig into a wardrobes and find something green to wear and bow to the patron saint of Irist Stout drinks. If you did not already know or had not realised from my hints, tomorrow is St Patricks day!
I was reminded of some smashing short films I saw at Gatwick airport whilst waiting for a flight to Denmark back late last year. Jamersons had set up a stand to promote their product and also had some large screens showing what I vaguely remember to be a claymation talk show. I did a quick search for this relavent festival but because Jamersons sponsor quite so many events I failed to find it. So if anyone remembers that film or has a picture please send it in.
However for all you Irish animators out there I did find out that the Irish Film Board is looking for New Irish Animation, however don't delay in sending your forms as there is only a month left till the deadline.
Also in my websearch quest for the best of Irish Animation, I came across "The Land Before Time", "American Tale" and "All Dogs go to heaven". A recent series in production called "The Island of Inis Cool" which is a joint project between Ocon, TerraGlyph and LuxAnimation. This again helps to squash the myth that CGI always has a particular sytle as it mimics claymation and stopmotion in style.